Sounds Like Fun
by Dark Angel Dragon
Summary: 2nd Shadow Chronicles Storyline. Frankie is kidnapped and more femmes are revealed during the rescue operation, as well as some other surprises along the way.
1. Chapter 1

*Sounds Like Fun*

*Part 1*

Back in the 70's and 80's an all female rock band dominated the charts for many years. This group were well known by all their fans and finally after much deliberation, they all retired from music in the late 80's due to the events of the time. The band members of Rock House went and continued on with their lives.

The lead singer and guitarist of that group, Sonya Tracy became a manager of her mother's music company that used to manage their band, now managing many other promising young musicians, singers, dancers, songwriters etc. wanting to break into the industry.

Sonia barely sang or played anymore on account of the fact a car accident had left her completely blind, but it had not blunted her other senses, giving her an extra keen sense of sound. It was this same accident that killed both her father and husband, who was the manager of the group, leaving her to raise her three children.

She turned this skill into a very valuable asset in using it to spot prodigies and talent for Deane Music. She never did change the name after her mother passed on, instead keeping it to honour her mother's memory and also allowing her sister to keep it as part of the parent company, Deane Entertainment, which was also part of Deane Corp, the family business.

The drummer and saxophonist Vivienne Grey, while a bit of a wild child and a huge sports fan, went on to the Portland Police Dept. for some time before going into some work as a private investigator and also pilot with Deane Technologies.

The backup singer, song writer and guitarist Aurora Sabre, went into the art industry. She followed her skills into graphic design and now works for Deane Entertainment, as well as running her own mechanics garage in Portland, Auto Art and Design, for creating custom cars, paintjobs and the like from where she bases her work. .

The group keytarist/keyboardist and lighting designer is Francine Deane; probably the most well known of the group due to her love of anything technological and also the owner/CEO of the world wide company Deane Corp.

While she and fellow former band member Sonia were sisters, both followed different paths set before them that were provided by their parents, that were sadly placed before them when their parents as well as Sonia's husband were killed in a car accident that left both the sisters permanently injured, Sonia blind and Francine crippled, it was this event that caused the break up of the band, despite the fact all the girls still worked with each other.

While Sonia learned to cope with her blindness, Francine wouldn't take it and so fixed herself the only way she knew how. The general public not knowing she fixed herself not with common surgery, but with cybernetics. She designed a technological program that allowed her to inject nanytes into her body to repair the damage on a medical level and also allowed her to not only walk again, but also dance, which was one of her favourite hobbies besides technology.

Anything else she may have done to herself technologically at the time, still remains a secret to the populace at large.

She had also been responsible for the creation of a mecha unit that was a prototype human driven device she was going to present to the military for a production project before a friend of the family got involved in it. While she had built other technological devices before this, but this one was for human piloting alone.

While she admits she was not completely responsible for the design of this unit, she dropped the project to prevent any future involvement of the military due to what happened to her old friend, who was now a social recluse because of it, and the arrangements Francine had to make to fake her friends death to cover up the accident.

But recently her old friend Rusty had found an outlet for her social reclusion and connected with some kindred spirits. At first she interfered with a battle between the Autobots and some Decepticons in downtown Portland, and then she had taken off for the day and spent it at their base, using one of Francine's cloak devices that she was still testing, much to her chagrin.

Frankie wasn't too worried about the situation as Rusty had stayed out of trouble thus far and she hadn't needed to repaint her again after the second incursion, that and her cloak had gotten a test of a kind, so she let the whole thing go. Her sister Sonia on the other hand was livid and gave Rusty a verbal what for when she came back home again.

Francine defended Rusty and intervened in the argument to get her sister to lay off, then got set upon herself. Sonia had stated that Rusty getting involved with the Autobots would only attract the attention of the Decepticons and they would then set their sights on Francine, her technological projects, her inventions or worse, enslave her to make weapons for them, and this worried Sonia to no end.

Frankie of course told off Sonia for being such a worry wort and just left. She wasn't going to stick around at their family home to get layed into for defending a friend so she went to spend some time alone to blow off some steam.

She had spent the last week living in her Portland penthouse working on her projects and taking care of business when the proverbial 'shit hit the fan'.

She figured her sister worrying so much had attracted some bad luck to her.

When her aggressors had first turned up, her first thought was that they were most likely after one her most recent military projects. After all she had just completed a weapons project for the US military that would enable the Military to assist the Autobots in defeating the Decepticons and possibly rid the planet of the alien menaces. She had no idea that it was because of Rusty and what the Decepticons now knew of her.

She had just finished a long meeting with shareholders and retired to her bedroom upstairs in her penthouse that was built on top of the Deane Corp. She had bathed, changed and had called for a company helicopter to come pick her up and take her home for some supplies from her lab, hoping she would not run into her sister while there.

She had turned up the music on her stereo very loud, and was dancing away in blissful ignorance. She however was unaware of it straight away but became suddenly aware of the sonic boom that happened right outside her windows instantly smashing all of them. It was no trouble then for the blue transformer to clear away the metal struts that had once held the two story tall glass windows in place and allow itself to enter and grab her.

Francine had been knocked across the room when the windows had shattered. She wasn't badly injured but had a few scratches and was bleeding in minor spots here and there. She didn't think it was too good an idea to move right now to get away from her Decepticon kidnapper as she had no shoes on and would risk cutting herself haphazardly trying to run through all that broken glass so she just let herself be taken and see what they wanted.

When the helicopter was approaching, it had not seen the initial attack, but the pilot had spotted Francine being shoved into a blue Seekers cockpit under protest as it was transforming back into its jet mode. All the pilot could do was report the incident, the chopper it was in was not made to match the speed of an F-15 Eagle, as it was only a commercial passenger chopper, and so that was the best course of action the pilot thought to take at the time.

*

Around the Ark, a few of the Autobots were used to either Jazz or Blaster, blasting out rock tunes when they were in their quarters or when they were off duty at all hours or whenever they could around their duty stations. It was just something commonplace to two of the base's most fervent music lovers.

And ever since those two mechs had heard that their newest friend Rusty knew one of the former members of an old rock band, they had been pestering Optimus non stop to convince him to allow them to give Frankie Deane a visit or invite her to the Ark for their own reasons.

Little did they know they would get their wish.

Optimus had the displeasure of accompanying Jazz to the security control room to retrieve some reports from Red Alert's desk he needed when he was set upon by Jazz pleading again.

When they arrived, Blaster was already there and as soon as Optimus saw him then looked back at Jazz grinning, knew he had been cornered. He realised they must have switched shifts with others to do this right when he needed those reports.

He was about to let them have their way when Prowl sent him a radio call.

"_Optimus, I think you had better turn on the news."_ He stated.

Jazz and Blaster looked at each other curiously then Jazz leant forward over one of the security monitors and switched to the local TV channel to see what was up.

Right in their own neighbourhood, a Seeker had gotten in under their radar and kidnapped a human, possibly for nefarious purposes. But not just any human, Francine Deane, the very person that Jazz and Blaster had been pestering Optimus Prime about for the last week or so.

After viewing the news report, he comms Prowl back and says, "Prowl, have all available officers meet me in the meeting room."

With that he grabs Red Alerts report and heads out of the Monitor room. For a moment Jazz and Blaster look at each other. Jazz turns to the two Minibots who are also there and says to them, "I gotta jive guys, can ya watch the boob tubes while I'm gone?"

Brawn and Cliffjumper grumbled a 'sure, fine' before both Officers left the room.

*

Francine had been out of it for some time judging by what time it now was according to her watch. It had been sometime around 11am when she had been snatched, now it was almost 2pm.

She had awoken to find herself caged behind some sturdy metal bars at the front of the apparent cell. The room was very big, no doubt it was used to contain captives of war and such, and being that Francine had noted she was nabbed by Decepticons, it was most likely housed by captured Autobots when the need arose. She did not know however that these were bars that could be energised to prevent escape or tampering of the bars to do so. So she got quite a shock when she touched said bars.

"Ouch!" She yelped in surprise.

"That'll teach ya meatbag!" Laughed a haughty mechanical voice outside her cell.

Francine looked to find the source of that voice and found herself face to face with a mechanical being, red in colour, apparently guarding her cell.

While still cradling her burnt hand, she inquires, "Who and what are you supposed to be?" She asked, "I thought all Decepticons were supposed to be tall and mean looking, but you're just short and ugly!" She thought that while she was incarcerated she may as well have some fun annoying her captors and she was also bored.

It didn't take much to rile this one.

"Who are you callin' short and ugly fleshbag?" Asked another mech. Francine had not noticed this other almost identical blue one.

"Hey Frenzy, what say we have a little fun with this meatbag and pound a few dents inta her for bein' a smartmouth?" The red one proposed.

"Heh, why not Rumble!" Frenzy answered. "Soundwave never said we couldn't!"

Francine was amused. Although she knew that they would never get the chance, she wasn't quite ready to reveal how she knew or even how she would have gotten out of having to fight those two anyhow.

Frenzy was just in the process of powering down the cell door and unlocking it when another taller dark blue mech showed up.

Soundwave could tell what his two companions were doing. Judging by the smirk on the human's face and also the annoyed looks of his two cassettes, he surmised that the human had deliberately tried to rile them up somehow and so he stepped in. "Cease and desist all functions immediately." Came the deep monotone vocals.

At the sound of it, both Frenzy and Rumble flinched and quickly locked up the cell and turned the bar charges back on again.

"We weren't doin' nothin'!" Exclaimed Rumble innocently.

Soundwave looked down at the small red transformer and waited till he lowered his head before Rumble responded, "We were just going to have some fun an' you never said we couldn't rough her up a bit?" He explained as he tried to exonerate himself.

"Yeah just a little fun!" The other one said, but he immediately cringed and lowered his gaze as soon as Soundwave turned his attention to him.

"Lord Megatron has requested the female human be brought before him at once." The tall blue mech advised.

The two small mecha grumbled and opened Francine's cell and pushed her out.

"Com'on you, time for you to bow down to your superiors." Joked Frenzy.

"Yeah!" Snickered Rumble.

Francine supposed she had no choice but to go where they wanted her to go, so she walked ahead of them down a hallway curious as to what they wanted with her.

*

When the Autobots had arrived at the ground floor of the Deane Corp building, they had already started a clean up of the glass and infrastructure that had fallen from the penthouse above and the local Police were already doing their part.

One of Francine's friends, who was also the helicopter pilot at the time was just finishing up her statement to the Police when she saw the arrival of the Autobots.

"Thanks for giving a statement Viv', good to see your still willing to deal with us after what the Commissioner did to get you discharged." Asked the attending Police Captain.

"No problem Jerry. I don't harbour any hard feelings, besides Miss Deane pays me better and I get more benefits than I ever did as a cop!" Vivienne mused as she winked at her old Captain.

"Maybe I should quit and come over to Deane Corp!" Mused the Captain.

"Maybe!" She replied. Vivienne was just about to excuse herself when her Officer friend was approached by one of the Autobots.

"Excuse me Captain Somersby, may we have a word?" Called Prowl.

"Ah hello Prowl, I was wondering when you lot would turn up seeing as how it was apparently a Decepticon that did this." The Captain replied and then turned to his old friend. "You'll have to excuse me Viv' but I've got to go and talk to these guys now, nice to see you again!"

"Not a problem Captain, I've gotta get back to work anyways, Caio!" And with that she left.

Meanwhile the Captain was relaying to the Autobots the information that had been gathered thus far from his Officers and also witnesses.

Jazz interjected, "Seems like ol' 'Cracker did a hit an' run on tha buildin'" He observed the information the Captain gave and also looked skyward at the damage to the side of the building.

Tracks and Bumblebee had been pulled off of patrol duty to accompany Prowl and Jazz into downtown Portland in case there were any Decepticons still in the area.

Bumblebee responded to Jazz, "Well it looks like we have some work to do in finding out why she was taken and where they have her now."

"Well I'd say they have taken her out of the city and back to the Nemesis." Commented Tracks as he pulled up and transformed. Prowl had asked him to scout around the surrounding areas to check for any Decepticon signatures or residual energy trails.

Prowl who had been totally engrossed in getting facts from the Captain, finished his conversation and excused himself and turned to his companions. "Anything tracks?" He asked

"Nothing left here except what they left behind." He pointed up at the side of the building above them.

"Hmm." He thought. "Tracks, you and Bumblebee return to patrol duty and let me know if you uncover anything else. Jazz and I will stay here and assess the situation further, and see if we can't dog anything else up."

Both of the black and white mechs watched as the other two transformed and drove off.

"Ok boss mech, let's get to it!" Jazz mused. This only received a flat look from Prowl.

Little did they know they were being watched.

*


	2. Chapter 2

*Sounds Like Fun*

*Part 2*

'_So do you think they can see us?'_ A female voice asked.

'_I doubt it.'_ Commented another with a decided English accent. _'The devices we are using are too well constructed for us to be seen by their sensors.'_

'_Geez, over confident much!'_ The first female retorted.

'_No, only faithful in Shadow's ability to provide Francine with sturdy technology for our specific use and protection.'_

'_Ok Airbourne, but you do come across as a tad egotistical and uppity despite what you just said.'_

'_And you still say whatever is on your cerebral processors irregardless of however it affects others Clash.'_

The two females talking were other transformers that had associations with Deane Corp, but they were not made like Rusty. Nor were they creations of Francine's.

The only thing they shared in common with the other transformer femme was the fact that their minds once belonged to human forms also, only that their conversion to a transformer being were voluntary, not accidental as was Rusty's.

Airbourne had been a WAC Officer during World War One. She had so loved the aeroplanes at the time but also loathed the fact that the 'men' of the Armed Forces would not allow women pilots in the war, so much so she had taken drastic measures into her own hands. While she was an ace pilot in her own right, they would still not let her fly and prove herself.

That was when she had come across a person who had shown her another way to live as well as to fly with no men telling what to do or how to do it.

Clash on the other hand was one of three human daughters originally to a mother who was a Head nurse during the Korean War. Her mother, her younger sister, as well as her twin were all converted just like Airbourne was.

They now resided in secret right under the olfactory sensors of the Cybertronians on Earth at present.

Both of them were situated on the top level of the Deane Corp building. One was cloaked in robot mode and the other was in her alt mode under a sensor net that protected her from being detected from the Autobots down on the street below. Right now the two femmes were talking between themselves while waiting for their companion Vivienne to arrive.

"Any luck?" Asked Clash when the aforementioned female arrived to their location.

Vivienne had just emerged from the higher level elevator when her comms started buzzing with the voice over. She, like the other two on the roof, was also a transformer. But unlike them, she was an original Cybertronian. Yet she was also different. She had as many upgrades as her body could handle since she had arrived here on Earth. And also had the capability to disguise herself in a human form.

"I got to chat with my old Captain at least, but for the most part, if Frankie has been taken to the Decep' base, we would never be able to handle going there on our own to retrieve her." Vivienne said out loud.

When Vivienne was an Autobot soldier, she had fought many Decepticons in her time and was still a crack shot and adaptable to any kind of weapon or form of combat. But since her revival here on Earth, she wanted to try and live a war free life. But she still knew how dangerous the Decepticons were, despite her friends' eagerness to retrieve Francine.

It hurt her more to hide in secret from her old Autobot comrades so close by and not make any contact with them, not only because she had friends there but she also had a sibling.

'_So what is the directive we will need to follow?'_ Asked Airbourne, still cloaked.

"I guess we'll have to break the line and expose our secret existence to the Autobots. We are going to need help on this one."

'_I told you not to doubt Shadow. She mentioned there would come a time when we would no longer have to live in secret.'_ Airbourne said.

Clash added, "And I just hate it when she's right all the time!"

"I wasn't doubting Shadow, Airbourne, only amusing myself over her prediction and the recent events." Vivienne chuckled, "And Clash, you haven't known her as long as I have, or you wouldn't be saying that!"

'_Shall I radio base and organise a visitor's delegation to the Ark?'_ Airbourne asked.

"Sure, why not." Vivienne responded haphazardly.

"Ooh this is going to be fun!" Clash commented.

*

At the Decepticon base, Francine wasn't faring much better. She was being pushed and shoved in the direction they wanted her to go, and at several intervals she had deliberately objected just to annoy them.

But it was when she arrived in the meeting room that she had finally had enough.

"Quit shoving already, I know how to walk forward." She objected vehemently.

Rumble and Frenzy had just brought her into the meeting room in front of several other large and deadlier Decepticons than the two small punks that were pushing her around.

"Not likely fleshbag, you should pipe down and show some respect to your superiors." Goaded Frenzy.

"If you two are my superiors then why don't you prove just how superior you are?" She remarked confidently.

Soundwave had in the mean time walked over to talk to Megatron who had been conversing with another at the time they walked in. Both turned around at the commotion.

Soundwave was about to go and retrieve his two minions when Megatron stopped him. "No Soundwave. This human is quite the fiery one. Let's see what she thinks she can do against your cassettes." Soundwave stood where he was and joined Megatron and some others in watching the commotion.

What ensued was a merry dance between the two cassettes and Francine. She had years of experience in Kung Fu and also Kickboxing and knew how to use her opponents size and weight against them. As well as the fact she had been taught by others about Cybertronian physiology and technology, not just Autobot structures but also Decepticon ones as well.

Needless to say it didn't end well for the two small warriors.

When it was all over, the first to speak was Starscream. "I have to commend you for your efforts human. I've never seen those two get beaten like that before." As he spoke the two knew he was looking down on them, it was their innate Decepticon pride that made them want to tear Starscream a new one. It took all but a look from Soundwave however to keep them in their place.

"Rumble, Frenzy, return." Soundwave spoke.

All the two cassettes could do was respond. Frenzy glared at the human as he walked past her. And Rumble spoke to her as he shoved past and poked her in the chest, "You'll get what's coming to you meatbag." And then both transformed and returned to their holding compartment in Soundwaves chest.

When they were out of sight, Francine locked eyes with Soundwave for a moment before being interrupted by Megatron's vocals.

"That was quite a show you put on human." He commented. "I'm curious to know exactly how you did that."

Francine knew his reputation and wasn't really all that keen on ticking him off, but she was sure as hell going to enjoy doing it just to see his reaction. "I didn't put on a show just for your entertainment, Megatron; besides if you don't dare to do anything, then how will you ever succeed at accomplishing anything." She said smugly.

Starscream was standing beside him and couldn't help but burst out laughing. Not only because she had dared to talk down to Megatron and was still living and breathing, but also because her cockiness she reminded him a little of himself.

Megatron himself couldn't help but see the humour in it, and decided not to blast her to bits for sassing him, as he still needed her to make something for him.

Francine was getting kind of bored now. She was a might hyperactive at times and her constant need to be doing something, especially if it was something technological, was what kept her entertained. It was her now innate boredom that was making her resort to smart comments and risking her own life by sassing Decepticons, who she knew, any one of them could end her life very quickly or just as suddenly.

She crossed her arms and huffed, "Get to the point already. Are you going to prattle on with pointless conversation, like this one here has a reputation of doing," She thumbed to Starscream, which got the Air Commander off colour, "Or are you going to tell me what you want me for?"

Before Megatron could speak, Starscream interjected and powered his guns and aimed them at Francine. "And what makes you think we need you for anything human?"

Frankie just looked straight at him, "Because lame brain, if you didn't need me for something, I know I'd already be dead!"

This got snickers off Skywarp and Thundercracker who were off to one side observing the goings on.

"Enough all of you." Bellowed Megatron loudly, which immediately quietened everyone in the room. He bent down and grabbed Francine roughly, who didn't even flinch as she was picked up and unceremoniously dumped onto the table top. "You are going to make this for us."

Almost at once she realised she wasn't on a table top metal surface and saw she had been put on top of some kind of blueprints. She recognised the design, it was a particle accelerator cannon that she had just finished designing for the military. Somehow the Decepticons had gotten hold of it and this was the reason she had been brought here.

She looked from the designs to the Decepticon leader, "And what if I refuse?" She contested.

"Then you will be on the receiving end of this." He pointed his fusion cannon right in her face and let it cycle low and glow only slightly to ensure she got the point.

On any ordinary day she might have flinched at having that particular weapon shoved in her face, but when she saw inside the barrel of the gun, all she could do was comment, "When was the last time you cleaned out the barrel? It's pretty bad in here and full of carbon scoring. You really should take some time to look after it better."

Everyone in the room just looked at her. Not only had she sassed Megatron earlier, but she had also gotten away with making a fool of the cassette twins and also Starscream and now she wasn't even flinching at having Megatron's fusion cannon in her face. They were all just utterly speechless.

*

Prowl and Jazz had returned to the Ark after surmising that no more evidence of the kidnapping could be obtained. They were only just organising with the Aerialbots for them to flyover the Decepticon base to draw them out and find out where Francine Deane had been taken when their proximity alert had gone off.

But before that.

When Vivienne had returned home, she had arrived to find Rusty returning from the Film Studio and she wanted in on the visit to the Ark. So the tall orange and black femme had gone on ahead for them.

While Rusty went through the front door to visit like she always did, Three others, including Vivienne in her SUV mode, broke off from Rusty's company some distance before the Ark and waited instead.

By this time, a shift changeover for patrol duty had occurred and now it was Mirage and Huffer as one team out and about, and also Sunstreaker and Bluestreak as another team around the base somewhere.

'_Ark base ta Patrol teams one an' two.'_

'_This is Mirage, Blaster, go ahead.'_

'_Sunstreaker responding.'_

'_Ignore the proximity alert comin' from tha base guys, it's just Rusty. She tripped up one of our external sensors again.'_

'_That'd be right!'_ Commented Sunstreaker over the comms, _'How can any sensor miss a femme that big anyway!' _

Most of them ignored Sunstreaker's snarky insult and just went back to their business. _'Team one received.'_ Responded Mirage.

Sunstreaker sighed and responded, _'Team Two received.'_

"You know it wasn't very nice what you said. I don't think that Rusty is that big, she is just tall and..." Bluestreak commented to Sunstreaker. He stopped as soon as Sunstreaker glared at him, "I uh... I'll shut up now." He said meekly.

As soon as Sunstreaker looked away he quietly started up again but then suddenly got cut off mid sentence. What tipped Sunstreaker off to a possible intruder was the fact that Bluestreak had squawked slightly when he went quiet.

Sunstreaker turned around to the mechs direction with his gun out and ready to shoot whoever had shot his companion, only to find a gun put into his face.

"Put down the gun, pick up your friend here and start walking." The white femme in front of him ordered. When he objected and didn't respond straight away she started charging her pulse rifle, "Don't even think about it, unless you want to end up like your friend here. Just pick him up and start walking."

Sunstreaker growled at her and did as she asked. At first he figured as soon as she would reach for the gun he would try and tackle her so he tossed the gun behind her. All she did was smirk, move her foot to step behind and made contact with the gun, whereby it was instantly subspaced. She never took her optics off of him for a nanoclik. "Move it." She demanded.

Sunstreaker did not want to comply, but then he didn't want to get his new paint job scratched up anyway.

At the Ark base, Blaster had picked up a distress signal from Sunstreaker's private comms and was talking to him privately. The Lamborghini had told him not to bother with any help. Bluestreak was not hurt in any way and the femme that was forcing him to carry Bluestreak to base was apparently an Autobot and had not made any attempts as yet to injure him in any way.

When Blaster zoomed in at her on the long range cameras, he had noted that she looked familiar somehow but then let the thought slide, until Rusty walked in.

Rusty commented, "Hey it's about time Vanguard got here!" As soon as she saw her companion on the screens he was watching.

Blaster's jaw dropped at the mention of the name, it was the name of the femme he had just been thinking about. Now he recognised her, but thought it was impossible given that the femme was a crew member on a battleship that was shot down by Decepticons over Cybertron airspace some time ago before they left home.

Then he got suspicious. All he could do was put out an alert over the base speakers, _'Incoming hostile, heading towards the entrance with Sunstreaker and an offline Bluestreak in tow.'_

Rusty raised a brow ridge at him and Blaster responded, "Well she's holdin' a gun to Sunny, can't hardly ignore that now can I?"

Rusty just shrugged then left the monitor room to join the others at the entrance.

As soon as Rusty left however He put in a private call to Optimus Prime.

*


	3. Chapter 3

*Sounds Like Fun*

*Part 3*

Optimus had ordered the Autobots to be prepared, especially after he had received the call from Blaster. He wanted to believe the femme had returned from supposed death but considering her current actions, he would have to treat her as hostile until the situation could be sorted out.

He had several soldiers posted in and around the rocky outcrop of the entrance to the Ark. And had ordered Prowl to stay inside with a team in case there was more trouble and reinforcements were needed in case she wasn't alone.

"Careful Autobots. We don't know if this femme is friendly or hostile as yet, so watch yourselves." He ordered his soldiers.

They were about ready to fire on anything that would show up when he had noticed their faceplates.

"Don't worry Prahme, we'll stop 'er." Bellowed Ironhide heroically. Some were more than a little anxious to start something, riled up by Bluestreak being attacked.

When Sunstreaker started walking over the rise, they almost got their wish, but when they saw that he was alone, they felt somewhat cheated.

Sunstreaker's scanners had told him that this white femme had been behind him the whole time, but he too saw that she was no longer behind him when he turned to look. And this confused him.

It didn't surprise Vanguard. Her abilities were electromagnetic and as such she could manipulate scanner and sensor readings. She had monitored Sunstreaker's readings and had jammed them into thinking she was behind him until she picked up the other Autobots ahead of her and branched off to observe.

As she was watching them undetected from above on the rocky outcrop, she saw Ratchet do his thing. He had swooped in to tend to Bluestreak while the commotion was going on.

Ratchet turned to Optimus. "Near as I can tell Optimus, he isn't damaged at all, just offline. If that femme was hostile or acting on behalf of any Decepticons she would have done more damage than this.

Vanguard snorted at this. She disliked being compared to her old enemies.

"You mean to tell me she could still be here somewhere?" Commented a trigger happy Cliffjumper, "I'll give her what for hurtin' Bluestreak in the first place."

Vanguard smirked at Cliffjumper from her hiding place. _'He is still the same, that pint sized pocket rocket!' _She thought.

Some of the Autobots turned when they heard a commotion at the security gate behind them.

"I don't care of ya have orders ta keep it closed ya twit, lemme out." Yelled a loud female voice.

Optimus sighed, he could hear Rusty even through the plated steel. It was then that a communication was sent to him.

'_Red Alert to Optimus Prime.'_ The security officer dictated.

"Yes Red Alert." He could hear some swearing and yelling in the background as he responded.

'_This uncouth femme is attempting to breach the outer defences while we are under orders top keep the gate closed…' _

However Red Alert was unable to continue as Optimus heard an unceremonious whack and the line was cut short. The next thing he heard was the screeching of the outer hull gates being forced open by said femme. This got the attention of all the others present as their attention was distracted from looking for the other femme.

When Rusty had opened the doors wide enough to be able to get out she stepped through. "So did I miss anything!" She chirped happily.

"Are you for real or what?" Asked Cliffjumper incredulously.

"No she's just a figment of our imaginations and if we ignore her long enough she'll go away." Sunstreaker responded haughtily. The mech having developed a dislike for her over the last few weeks, he didn't bother to hide his dislike either.

"Maybe we should do the same to you." Cliffjumper replied dryly.

"And maybe I should pound your faceplate pipsqueak." He retorted.

"Settle down you two, this ain't tha tahme nor tha place." Ironhide snapped at them.

Optimus sighed, "Thank you Ironhide."

Ratchet had picked up Bluestreak in the meantime and had gone inside to treat an offline Red Alert with a cracked faceplate, so that left Ironhide, Optimus, Sunstreaker, and Cliffjumper on the ground near the entrance with Rusty standing by them, and off somewhere quiet, Jazz had snuck off after they had discovered the white femme missing.

Jazz smiled to himself. He found the white femme hidden up on the rocky outcrop overlooking the base entrance with clear shots to all his comrades if she wanted to take them. He hadn't seen her faceplate yet so didn't recognise her, and Optimus had not told the others as yet about the information that Blaster had passed along to him.

He was about to cock his gun to the rear of her helm and have her surrender when Rusty piped up from down below. "Hey there Jazz!" She yelled and waved.

Rusty hadn't seen her friend and the moment that Rusty had waved in her direction to someone else she realised she had been found out. But she moved too quickly for Jazz to retaliate and within the space of a few very fast moves, she had him back to the ground and his arms pinned under her knee plates. "Might've known you'd be the one mech who'd be able to sneak up on me Jazz!" She mused. Jazz looked back up at her through his visor quizzically, the voice seemed familiar as did her faceplate but he didn't recognise his old trainer, she didn't look the same as she used to.

"There she is!" Exclaimed Cliffjumper and took a shot at her.

"Cliffjumper no!" Prime shouted, but it was too late.

Vanguard responded with lightning like speed and shunted to one side to avoid the blast and then fired off her own return blast with her pulse rifle and shot Cliffjumper's gun out of his hand with pinpoint accuracy. But during all this time, her shifting her weight on top of Jazz gave him the chance to counter her holding him and he turned the tables around and now had her pinned in the same position she had just had him in.

He mused, "Now you're my prisoner!" All she was smile back at him and sigh.

*

Later after they had hauled the white femme into the base for questioning.

Ironhide commented, "Trailbreakers gonna be sure glad ta see ya that's for sure! Pity he's off on a mission ta Cybertron fer Ultra Magnus an' his crew."

Vanguard was eager to see her younger sibling again but not right now when she had other matters on her processor.

"Nice to see your aim hasn't deteriorated either!" Cliffjumper grinned. He had already been to see Ratchet to fix the plating that had been ruptured when she had hit him dead centre of his outer hand plates.

"And yours hasn't improved at all, despite all the cycles of training I gave you all those cycles ago, short stuff." She responded.

Ratchet and Ironhide were off to one side laughing to themselves.

"Hey knock it off you two!" Cliffjumper snapped.

"Who us?" Mused Ratchet. Both of them trying uselessly to stifle their amusement.

While the discussion was going on between them, Rusty who had been sitting across from Vanguard, asked her, "So we gonna go storm the 'Con base and get Frankie back or what? And when are the others comin'?"

Prowl was just about to ask Vanguard something when he had heard this and changed his line of questioning. "You were planning on infiltrating the Decepticon base alone?"

"No." Vanguard answered flatly. "That's part of why we are here, why we exposed ourselves. We were going to ask for help and tag along with you to do it."

"And who's we?" Asked Prowl.

"Just some other friends who came along." Rusty interjected.

For once Vanguard was glad of her friend's chattiness, they had yet to ask her any questions about where she had come from yet and was waiting for the inevitable, but Rusty's chatter had directed their attention elsewhere.

"And whereabouts are these friends?" Questioned Prowl.

But before anyone could answer, it was then that Optimus had walked in with some datapads in his hands and placed them in front of Prowl.

"To be honest," Optimus commented, "I'm more interested in knowing where you have been for the last five million cycles and if you were alive and functional, why you didn't return to active duty? You are an Autobot soldier after all."

But Optimus didn't get the answer he wanted. "That's a very long story for another time. Right now what's important is getting Francine Deane away from the Decepticons before she is either harmed or forced to build some kind of weapon for them." Vanguard answered.

They however didn't get long to formulate a strategy due to the impact blasts rocking the ground from outside. The Decepticons had come to them.

'_Ya there big boss mech?'_ Came a message on his comms.

"Go ahead Blaster." He responded.

'_Those 'Cons snuck up on top of us and are now bombardin' tha base with their weapons and they've got a human with them. Teletraan one has already initiated defences and closed the blast doors at the entrance. Scout teams one and two are trapped outside and I can't contact 'em, they could've been taken out beforehand which is why no one radioed in to warn us 'bout our visitors.'_

"Thanks Blaster, Optimus out." He turned off his comms and looked at the others.

Ratchet commented, "I will go get the medical bay ready if its needed." Then he left.

"Good." He paused for a moment and asked Prowl, "Organise a team to go out the back entrance quietly and look for Mirage Huffer, Jazz and Sunstreaker, then come and join me out front if you find them." Prowl nodded then left. "The rest of you come with me." He left and the others followed, with Vanguard and Rusty right behind them.

*

"And just how long are we going to waste our firepower blasting the Autobots doors down before we get to waste some of them." Whined Starscream.

"When the majority of them are out here to let us test our newest weapon that this human technologist so kindly helped us make." Beamed Megatron, looking down at the female human that was squirming in his grip.

But he became disgusted with the fleshling and turned to his soldiers, "Bombshell watch this fleshling and don't let her get away."

"As you wish Megatron." The Insecticon leader answered.

After she was tossed on the ground, Francine got up only to be surrounded by several nasty looking bug machines and sighed to herself.

"I wonder what kind of spare parts I could get from this one?" The Insecticon called Chop Shop commented getting awfully close to her head.

When the Autobots finally emerged, Megatron ordered, "Decepticons attack!"

As soon as Optimus was able to he gave his own order, "Autobots, defend the base and take down those Decepticons."

The various soldiers of both sides took their positions and picked out their opponents, while the Aerialbots took to the sky to deal with the Seekers, the rest stayed on the ground.

Vanguard was about to turn around and ask Rusty to join her to retrieve something she had detected, but before she could encourage Rusty to come with her, the large femme had to deal with her own problems. So Vanguard looked elsewhere for help.

Motor Master wanted payback.

He had gotten Rusty's attention by coming up behind her and then locking her with his arms around her, trying to crush her. But all she said was, "Geez if you wanted a hug, all you had to do was ask for one!"

This infuriated him even more. She had no problems breaking free of his arm lock and then turned to give him what for. All of a sudden, the Decepticons around him believed the stories they had been told about the femme and decided they were going to leave the very unpopular Motor Master to his fate, so they moved off to other less strong Autobots.

Vanguard in the meantime had encouraged Bumblebee to come with her and find the signal she was detecting somewhere behind the Decepticon lines. Bumblebee was still rather young to remember Vanguard much but he knew of her from some of the stories Jazz had told him about his old teacher when her identity had been confirmed and was willing to show her some trust if she was willing to work with the Autobots again.

They both snuck around behind the main fighting to come across a scene with two Insecticons guarding a female human.

"Is that your friend?" Bumblebee asked quietly.

Vanguard added, "Yes it is." She looked over at the two Decepticons. "I don't remember these two, who are they?" She asked.

"The red one with the pincers is Chop Shop and the darker one, the leader of the Insecticons is Bombshell. Both are nasty customers."

Vanguard looked at Bumblebee for a second, only because of the fact the Insecticon had the same name as one of her friends. "Ok well, which one do you want?"

But before he could make a selection, both of the Insects were bombed suddenly from above. Vanguard only had an instants notice before she threw up a shield to protect her, Bumblebee and Francine and left the Decepticons to their unfortunate fate.

"Took you lot long enough to come and get me." Francine said as she coughed her way through most her words.

The silent military helicopter uncloaked itself and transformed to land between Vanguard and Bumblebee.

"Primus! Just how many of you are there?" He commented surprised.

Vanguard didn't see the point in bothering to hide it from the Autobots anymore so she was completely open as to who the new comer was. "Bumblebee, this is Switchblade. She was another of the crew members that was on our ship when it supposedly disappeared."

The black femme queried on their secret comms. '_Supposedly?'_

Vanguard replied, _'They don't know the full story yet, so leave it at that for now.'_

Switchblade turned from Vanguard to the small Minibot and bowed graciously.

Vanguard asked, "Have Airbourne and _our_ Bombshell arrived too?"

Switchblade turned to look at her female companion and raised her brow at Vanguards emphasis on 'our'. She surmised that there must be another soldier on the battlefield with the same name. "Yes." She answered simply. "It is time we joined the rest of them. Now that we have Francine in our possession, we no longer need to organise a rescue mission."

Vanguard nodded and transformed to her SUV mode, "You comin' Frankie?" She asked her friend opening her passenger side door for her.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" She exclaimed. As she drove off, she was joined by Bumblebee and Switchblade who also transformed to their alt modes and followed behind.

*


End file.
